The Bottled Memories of Their Broken Relationship
by Blue Penguin Lightning
Summary: For Bade Prompts: "She didn't tell you, did she?" in which Beck finds out just how hard their time apart affected the woman he loves. [prompt: bottled memories]


Disclaimer: If I was Dan, we'd be getting Victorious for a very long time. Also, I'm not a man. Enough said there.

Big thank you to Cassandra for inviting me to do this prompt. I was so excited and I hope you enjoy it!

And a BIG thank you to Bria who beta read this at 3 AM this morning. I really REALLY appreciate it.

* * *

The blaring scream of the alarm clock roused Jade and Beck from sleep. Jade groaned. She almost found it more appealing to be woken up by their screaming toddler.

_Almost._

Today was the last full day of them being in California, no thanks to Jade. Beck didn't mind though. This was a new adventure to them, and it was going to be full of new experiences, and that's what life was all about. Besides, who said living in another country for the next three years wasn't going to be an adventure?

"Will you go make the coffee?" Jade groaned.

Beck didn't even have to answer. When Jade felt his weight shift from the bed, she knew he was about to make the coffee. She smiled as she realized how tightly she had him wrapped around her finger.

She threw back the blanket back and almost had to roll herself out of bed. She thought she would have been used to this after having a child. She was clearly wrong. She retreated into the bathroom and took a warm shower, allowing her muscles to loosen up and permitting her to relax for a moment.

The only thing that would make the morning more bearable was her routine cup of black coffee with two sugars, which Beck had waiting for her as she came downstairs. He had even had a gluten free English muffin with bananas and agave on it waiting for her.

"This should make your morning a little better," Beck said.

"Cat will be here in an hour or so to help you pack up while I'm at that stupid meeting," Jade explained. Her disdain for this meeting was becoming more obvious with each word that left her mouth.

"Hey," Beck said, grabbing her chin gently and pulling her toward him for their morning kiss across the small kitchen table. "It's not a stupid meeting. It's a meeting that's about to change your life. It's about to change all _our_ lives."

"Yeah," she mumbled. "Remind me of that when I get home at seven tonight, if I'm lucky."

"We've gone through a lot together. This is just another beautiful memory for us…and for Seraphina."

Jade sighed. "I know. I love you."

"Besides, you get the easy job," he said.

Jade scoffed. "You're right. I get the wonderful job of sitting in a meeting that doesn't have a determined end time while you pack up the house."

"And I have to take care of our three year old," Beck pointed out.

"That's why Cat is coming over to help you out."

"Are you suggesting that I can't take care of everything?"

"I know you can. It's just…well, you and I both know that Seraphina can be a handful and since we don't know how long I'll be gone, I'd like it if we didn't have to stay up all night to finish packing."

"Is that the only reason?"

As Jade and Beck leaned in for another kiss, Jade's cell phone began playing the theme to _The Scissoring_, indicating that it was her agent calling her. And just from the scowl Jade was giving her cell phone, Beck knew it couldn't be good news. Or at least it was highly unlikely to be good news.

"I'll be there in fifteen," she grumbled. Apparently, it wasn't enough for this meeting to last forever, but the studio wanted to start it an hour earlier than expected.

"It'll be over before you know it," Beck said.

Jade didn't have a response. There was nothing Beck could say that would make this experience any less painful.

* * *

Beck brewed himself yet another cup of coffee. This was his fourth…fifth…at this point, he had completely lost count. He had no idea that packing up the entire house to move halfway across the world to London could be such an arduous task. And with a three year old in the house and Jade at a production meeting, Beck knew it was going to be a _long_ day.

And the last hour and a half had been a testament to that. He was exhausted. The never ending list of things to do seemed to be growing with each task that had been completed.

So when Beck heard a knock at the door, he was more than relieved. He didn't even care if it was someone coming over to help. He desperately needed a break.

"Hi!" Cat screamed when Beck opened the door.

"Good to see you too," Beck commented, pulling the long-time friend into a hug. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he was going to miss not seeing Cat every day.

"Where's Seraphina?" she asked. "I bought her a giraffe as a going away present. It's Mr. Pinky!"

"Cat, she's got more than enough stuffed animals. There's an entire corner in her room with animals just from you. Why did you get her another one?"

"So she remembers me when you guys come back," Cat tried to explain but Beck could hear the hurt in her voice.

"Hey, you're welcome to visit us whenever you'd like. We purposely got a flat with extra room because Jade knows you'll take her up on it, mostly so you can see Seraphina. We won't be gone forever. Jade just happened to get a job out there and it's going to last for a while so we're all moving there to make it easier on all of us. But you're welcome anytime."

"So I can go give it to her then?" Cat asked.

Beck shook his head. "If you wake my three year old up, you're going to have to deal with her all day."

Cat thought about it for a moment but decided that any time she got to spend with Seraphina was well worth it.

"Okay. I can deal with that."

And just like that, Cat was out of sight. Beck sighed. Having Cat here was supposed to make things easier.

"Cat!" Beck called. Packing up the house was going to be difficult enough without having to entertain his daughter.

Cat popped her head back into the kitchen and smiled.

"When Seraphina wakes up later, you can give her the giraffe," he promised.

"How do you know it's a giraffe?!"

Beck rolled his eyes as he pulled another stack of newspapers out of the box. There was still plenty to wrap and pack and…and Cat wasn't providing any help whatsoever.

"You told me that his name was Mr. Pinky."

"I did?"

Time for a different approach. Beck needed to get off the giraffe train. "There's some newspaper on the counter. Can you start wrapping up Jade's scissor collection? It's in her closet."

Beck found it interesting that the one thing that Jade didn't want him to touch was her scissor collection. He didn't understand why but he knew better than to argue over a collection of sharp and potentially dangerous objects.

Cat picked up a stack of papers and an empty box to pack up Jade's collection. Both she and Beck knew well that if Jade's scissor collection wasn't packed properly, then they would be hearing about it later. So as Cat started upstairs, Beck continued to pack up the downstairs half of their home.

* * *

As Beck finished packing up the majority of dishes in the kitchen, leaving a few coffee cups out because he wasn't about to take coffee away from Jade (it was the one ace he still held), Beck made his way upstairs to check on Cat's progress. He also wanted to make sure she hadn't woken up Seraphina. Beck loved his daughter beyond words but having her awake was only going to slow down progress. And without Jade here, Beck needed to make as much progress as he could.

"Cat!" he called upon entering the master bedroom.

When he got no response, he made his way into the closet. There was a huge box in the corner with Jade's scissor collection, all nicely packed inside it. At least Cat was making progress. Only a million more tasks to go.

As he turned to leave, a glare caught his eyes. It was beside the box containing the sharp collection. He bent down to move the box to see exactly what it was the caught his attention. And when he discovered a crate of bottles.

"What the…what are these?" Beck asked.

Why would Jade have a bunch of bottles in her closet? More importantly, what was inside these bottles?

"Beck!" Cat called.

"Up here!" he quickly responded. "Jade's closet!"

Cat reappeared a minute later, holding Seraphina, who had just woken up. Or had been woken up by the redhead. The small toddler was already gripping Mr. Pinky for dear life but still looked exhausted.

"Cat! I told you to not wake her up!" Beck chastised. Sometimes, Cat was just another child to them and while he loved her dearly, he did not want to be dealing with her childlike behavior right now. He had enough to do.

"See? She likes Mr. Pinky," Cat declared.

Beck rolled his eyes as he took his daughter from the redhead, now suddenly full with energy. Beck and Jade still couldn't figure out how she could be exhausted one minute and then charged up to conquer the world the next.

"Gir-aff!" Seraphina shouted, flailing her new present around. "Gir-aff!"

"Yes. That is a giraffe," Beck added.

As he hugged his daughter while she played with Mr. Pinky, Beck pointed to the stash of bottles in the crate Jade had halfway hidden in her closet.

"She didn't tell you, did she?" Cat asked softly.

"Did you think that if she did, I would be asking you what they were?" Beck retorted.

At Beck's outburst, Seraphina started to cry.

"No, no," Beck cooed. "You're okay. It's alright."

"Faucet," she mumbled into Beck's shoulders.

"She wants to eat the sink?" Cat tried. What kind of child wanted to eat a sink?

Beck shook his head. "No. She really wants a muffin. We're not sure why she's calling them faucets."

"No 'uffi' no," the child mumbled.

"But I thought she…do we get her one then?" Cat asked. This situation was now beyond confusing to Cat.

Beck kissed Seraphina on the head before handing her back to Cat, promising her that she would have a faucet in just a minute.

"I want to go through these bottles and find out what they are. The _faucets_ are on the counter in a small container. She gets one and she will make a mess so here's your heads up."

"Does Seraphina want a faucet?" Cat teased.

Beck smiled to himself as his daughter laughed. When she and Cat left, Beck sat back down on the floor and proceeded to open the bottles up. He wanted to know what was inside. Maybe it would give him an idea of why Jade had kept them hidden from him.

_I miss him. –February 18, 2012_

_I wish he'd noticed how much I missed him. –May 19, 2012_

How could he have done this to her? How could he have not noticed? He knew Jade better than anyone else. How did this stay secret from him? Why didn't Jade say anything?

_I just want to hear him say he loves me one more time. –July 26, 2012_

_Why can't I stop missing him? -September 22, 2012_

Beck opened bottle after bottle, reading over the little messages inside and checking the dates on the bottom. He felt his heart break further with each message. How could he have put Jade through this?

_I don't want to let him go but I know it'll make him happy. –October 13, 2012_

_Nothing compares to him; nothing ever will. –October 20, 2012_

Beck picked up the crate of bottles and placed them by the door. This was something he wanted to discuss with Jade. He wanted to understand this. He wanted, no, needed to know why she had these.

"Beck, Jade kept those from you for a reason," Cat said softly from the doorway of the closet.

"Why though?"

Cat shrugged her shoulders.

"Cat, where's my daughter?" Beck asked.

"She's eating her muffin."

"Unsupervised?"

Cat's eyes practically doubled in size.

"I'll go…yeah…"

As Cat turned to leave, another bottle caught Beck's eyes. He had to talk to Jade about these. He needed to understand why she kept them all this time.

"When Jade gets home, can you stay here and take care of Seraphina for a little while? I want to talk to her about these bottles," Beck asked.

Cat looked uneasy about the situation. If Jade had hidden something from Beck, it was for a good reason. Even though she knew about the bottles, she didn't say anything to Beck. This was for Jade to deal with. It was something she and Beck had to work out.

When Cat left, Beck pulled the thin piece of paper from the bottle. Like all the others, there was a date on the bottom of the bottle that corresponded with the small memo inside.

_I just want him to be happy. –November 24, 2012_

* * *

It was late by the time Jade got out of her meeting.

Very late.

It was almost ten at night before Jade made it home and she was grouchy. The meeting went way beyond the original time expectations and they had completely run out of coffee by the early evening.

Unbeknownst to Jade, her agent had sent a text to Beck, informing him that the meeting had ended and that his wife was not in the most pleasant of moods. And since Beck knew that this little confrontation about these concealed bottles wasn't going to help the situation, Beck made sure that there would be a fresh pot of coffee waiting for his wife when she got home.

Upon entering, Jade was met with the aroma of her favorite caffeinated beverage. It put her in a better mood, at least for the moment being. She grabbed the mug she used that morning and wiped out the water moisture from it being washed and poured herself a cup. As she put the pot back, she saw a note folding next to the machine.

_We need to talk._

Jade rolled her eyes. It wasn't enough that she had wasted the entire day at a meeting, but she had a bad feeling about whatever it was that Beck wanted to talk about, especially since he didn't meet her in person to say something.

Jade allowed herself a few minutes to sit and enjoy her coffee. If Beck wasn't willing to meet her in person, then he was not allowed to have a say in how long it took for Jade to adhere to his demands. The coffee, although wired with caffeine which meant she would probably be up half the night, made her night just a little better.

She doubted that what Beck had to say was going to be friendly conversation. She took her time heading upstairs once she had thoroughly enjoyed her coffee. She didn't know exactly what Beck wanted to talk about but considering he was bringing it up the night before they were set to move couldn't have been a good sign. But when she arrived in the bedroom, Beck wasn't there. Instead, she was greeted with another note.

_I'm outside on the dock. Bring a jacket. It's cold._

Jade looked to her scissor collection in her closet. Beck couldn't have. She made it explicitly clear that he wasn't to touch her scissor collection. She quickly moved the box to the side and saw that her stash of bottles was gone.

At first, she was furious. She knew Cat would have never revealed them to Beck. This meant that Beck had been involved in wrapping her scissor collection because she purposely hid these bottles behind them. She knew Beck wouldn't snoop. Or at least she thought he wouldn't.

But…maybe this was a good thing. Maybe now she wouldn't have to hide this from Beck anymore.

Maybe now she wouldn't have to explain this to Seraphina when she was old enough to understand heartbreak.

Maybe, just maybe, this was a good thing.

Still, now she had to explain them to Beck. How was she supposed to explain them to him? How was she going to justify keeping these around for all this time?

"You missed one," she mumbled to herself.

She grabbed the stray bottle that she kept separated from all the others and then the large jacket sitting on the bed. Beck had clearly planned this out. She stashed the bottle into her jacket and made her way down the hall to check on her daughter. Seraphina was in her bed, holding a new giraffe. Jade shook her head. Cat was curled up in the chair beside her. She placed a quick kiss on Seraphina's forehead and headed out to meet Beck.

As promised, Beck was sitting on the dock that resided less than a five-minute walk from their house. Beck had his feet dangling in the water and starting to make his skin prune-like.

"Found them, huh?" Jade began.

Beck didn't say anything. He prompted Jade to sit down next to him. She did and waited for him to say something. Instead, all he did was look out in the ocean. Jade didn't like it when Beck confronted her about something, but this silence was almost worst.

"Say something," she finally said. The quiet silence of the night was one thing. Getting the cold shoulder from her husband was another thing entirely.

"Jade, all those dates on the bottom of those bottles were during our breakup," he finally said.

"Yeah," she whispered.

"So…what are these and don't say they're nothing. You wouldn't have hidden them away if were nothing."

Jade knew she couldn't talk her way out of this. She was going to have to own up and face it.

"They're memories," she softly admitted.

"I got that. I read them," Beck retorted. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't get the bitterness out of his voice. He was angry at Jade. How could she have kept this from him? Why didn't she just tell him?

"What do you want me to say: sorry for hiding them from you because I'm not."

Jade turned to get up, only to have Beck grab her arm, effectively making her stay where she was. He wasn't done.

"Do you remember when you and Cat found Tori and I at the animal hospital and I asked if you were okay and you said you were?"

Jade turned her face away. She remembered that day. She never told Beck but she cried herself to sleep that night. She wanted Beck to be happy, even though it meant he wasn't going to be with her. Or at least that's how it appeared at the time.

"Our breakup really tore you apart, didn't it?" he asked softly.

Jade could only nod her head as she bit her lower lip.

Beck picked up the crate of bottles and set it between them. Jade looked at him, obviously confused.

"Throw them in the ocean," he gently ordered.

"Why?"

"It's not who you are anymore."

"You don't think we should hold onto them?" Jade asked. "To remind us?"

Beck shook his head and wrapped his arm tightly around Jade, pulling her close under the starlit night sky.

"It's part of your…_our_ past. You shouldn't have had to feel like that. Jade, I love you and I don't ever want to put you in that sort of position again."

"It was high school," she pointed. "It was a long time ago."

She usually wouldn't defend this but she didn't want to discuss it. She had purposely hidden those bottles away so that Beck wouldn't ever find them. She had purposely called Cat to help pack, and more importantly clean out her closet, because she knew her best friend wouldn't snoop around and ask questions and confront her about it.

"Still."

"There's one more," she whispered. She pulled the bottle from her oversized jacket and handed it to Beck.

"It's can't be that good of a memory, judging from the other ones here."

"Why don't you check the date on the bottom of it and tell me."

On the bottom on the glass bottle was a date scribbled in permanent marker. Beck immediately recognized it.

"It's the date we got back together…after you sang at the Full Moon Jam," he whispered. "Let's keep this one."

"No."

Jade grabbed the thin bottle from Beck, taking a deep breath. She never thought Beck would find these bottles and she would never have to explain them. But perhaps that what they both needed: to clear the air…to resolve things that should have been figured out long before now. She threw it far off the dock, allowing the ocean to wash it away and into the unknown.

"Let's start over. They're all bad memories, anyway."

"What do you mean? That last one wasn't."

Jade shook her head. Beck didn't understand why this bottle wasn't as good as it appeared.

"Yes it was. Okay, it was the end of the break-up and we got back together. But it's still part of the break-up."

Beck hadn't thought about it like that. But Jade was right. In order for them to get back together, they had to break up. So this bottled represented another memory of it. If Beck wanted to get rid of all those memories, he needed to get rid of the bottle in Jade's hands as well.

He took the bottle from her and just held it for a minute. That night was one of the best nights of his life but Jade was right: it was still a part of the break-up, even if it was the end of it.

"Do you want to throw it or shall I?" Beck asked.

"I think I need to," Jade whispered.

Beck held out the bottle in front of her, still unopened. Jade took it from him and hurled it far into the ocean, letting the current pull it away from them.

"Feel better?" he asked. He wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her softly.

Jade smiled as she leaned into Beck. She never thought that throwing a bottle into the ocean would make her feel better about what happened. But it was therapeutic for her; she didn't have to keep this secret from Beck.

Besides, Beck didn't say anything keeping happy memories in a bottle while they were in London…


End file.
